How to Make a DIY Photoshoot for Your Baby

Hey everyone! So the other day, my fiancé and I were bored and decided to make a Christmas photoshoot for our son. We had our camera but needed somewhere nice to shoot and we of course needed props. The lighting in our house was pretty bad as well. So here is what we gathered to make our pictures looks professional:

Equipment:
- Camera (of course)
- Bright light - lamp from target
- Reflector - mirror from target

Environment & Props:
For the Xmas shoot:
- fireplace
- white Xmas teddy bear
For the library shoot:
- books in bookshelves
- books stacked
- metal tin bucket
For the outdoor drummer shoot:
- grassy outdoors (best if just before sunset)
- drum piece
- drum sticks

Subject:
Darling baby
Cute simple outfit
Pierce is wearing:
- H&M jeans with suspenders
- white onesie
- old navy tan moccasins

So for the first two shoots that were indoors we used the lamp and mirror. All we did was plug in the lamp and shined it onto the mirror and placed it facing the baby wherever we got the best light. You will have to test and keep moving around until you like it. After that you just take a million pictures and try to make your baby look at you by making loud funny noises!

For the outdoor shoot, we just placed him at an ideal spot on the grass and took pictures of him at his level.

After taking pictures get on your computer and go on photoshop! Adjust the lighting add more contrast if needed sharpen up etc. or you can download some actions that do this for you already and just use actions to so all the work for you. Adjust to your liking. For most of my pictures i used the vintage action and tweaked it by deleting several layers until it was perfect. Here I show you how I edited my pictures several different ways using actions that I downloaded from ...

And that's basically it! That's how I got these wonderful darling pictures of my baby boy! Not bad for an amateur, I must say.

I am already making Xmas cards with these pictures!!

Baby Pierce's First Halloween

What a night! Carrying a 20 pound baby door to door is a workout for sure. Pierce was so amazed by all the face paints and masks he saw today. He especially liked staring at his oldest cousin Jaiden who was a skeleton football player. All day today, he kept looking at me and smiling and laughing. I'm glad he didn't get scared though! Halfway through he started getting really tired so I let him sit in the stroller and he knocked out for about 20 minutes. After going through several blocks we went home and dumped out all the candy! He loved looking and picking up each one and trying to eat it haha. We got a big bag of candy but only that my fiancé and I can enjoy! Sorry Pierce! Anyways hope you enjoy these pictures of my baby's first halloween.

DIY Toad (Mario) Costume

Here is a DIY on how I made this costume for my son. My son is only 8 months old so the white beanie fit his mushroom head, if you plan on making this for someone bigger you might need a chef's hat or white fabric. To see how I made the vest look at the video..

The Hat:

You will need a cowboy hat or semi-sturdy hat with a brim that fits your person, and a cardboard cut out into a circle around brim of hat then cut the inside of the circle like this

Tape the cardboard circle to the hat

Stuff some socks with plastic bags and tape around the hat above the cardboard

get your white beanie with red felt circles sewed onto it and wrap it over the whole hat

 The Costume on my son:

for Halloween I will let him wear a tan or white long sleeved shirt underneath his vest

So hard to get a good picture with this boy!

White pants are from the thrift store

Blue vest was a shirt or cardigan, I cut off the sleeves and added gold ribbon to the trim of the whole shirt using hem tape!

not the best work but he still looks like a mushroom head!

My little Toad!

DIY Mario & Luigi Costumes

Here is a simple tutorial on how to make your own fast and easy Mario and Luigi costumes! This is perfect for couples or a group costume for Halloween!

So here I am with my hat and mustache as Luigi!

You will need yellow felt for buttons, a red tee shirt for Mario and a green tee shirt for Luigi

Some blue ribbon for your "suspenders"

White Felt Circle & Red Felt for M (Mario) if you don't have a plain red hat

Here I cut out the "L" for Luigi since I have a plain green hat

My green hat from the thrift store (was originally a st. patrick's day beret, but I just cut off the thread that was connecting the top to the visor)

Here I just taped the "L" to my green hat

For the suspenders, just bring the ribbon from one side and bring it around your neck to the other side (saves more ribbon and is easier to attach to your pants)

Some jeans or shorts (Blue pants or blue shorts would be more ideal but this way still looks cool!)

Some yellow circles cut out of felt for your "buttons"

Safety pins

to attach to the front of your pants or shorts

Black Felt and Mario and Luigi Mustache Templates

glue dots to attach your mustache (or tape)

The completed Luigi costume

The completed Mario costume

Me as Luigi

Paul as Mario

& here is a video of this tutorial if videos are easier for you...